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Tarak (race)
The Tarak are a race and civilization that rose to prominence during the classical era, and are no longer extant. They built a Stellar Empire known today simply as the Ancient Tarak Empire. In their time however, their contemporaries called them the Sanhakas Federation. Its capital, and the Tarak homeworld, was Taras. Physical Characteristics and Physiology As usual, to understand the Tarak, one must understand their homeworld: Taras. Taras is classified as a Jungle World, but as always in Stellar Cartography, classifications should not be taken at face value. 'Jungle' classification simply means warm and wet, and Taras was indeed both of these. Its surface was mostly water, its landmasses were long, narrow, 'snaky' continents with few mountains to block moisture and a powerful weather system that powered frequent monsoons. However, although humidity was usually high, the average surface temperature was usually relatively comfortable. Taras had a vibrant and diverse biosphere, and out of these billions of species it was only a matter of time that one of them became sapient. The Tarak share this and another similarity with humans: that is, their path in evolution - being derived from tree-dwelling primates. However, Taras, unlike Africa, did not experience the dramatic shift in climate that forced human ancestors to abandon the trees and stand upright. Instead, adapting to Taras' heavier gravity, Tarak grew stronger and wider, and found themselves taking to the ground often anyway, as the (often short) trees could no longer support their family units. Unlike humans, they retained their tails, used for balancing on tree branches, and had a much more slouched posture. Tarak are notoriously physically strong, especially by comparison to their Desan rivals, who wrote about this often. A naked Tarak adolescent was said to be equivalent to three Desan adults wearing powered exoskeletons (of course it should be noted that Desan were usually physically weaker than humans). However, they were not very agile, and were quick to tire (though could sprint very very quickly in short bursts, and jump a good ways). If they ran in one direction, it was difficult for them to change facing mid-step, and even harder to stop. In general they lacked the endurance of Humans, Randi, or Cogron, and died more quickly in general to more minor injuries, diseases, or shortages. Biochemistry Early History: Origins of Civilization Tarak civilization is supposed to have first emerged in the shallows of Lake Karowahas, where city life, agriculture, and bronze metallurgy began. Migrants brought these concepts throughout much of the known world, and where they settled, new cultures were created. Middle History: Formation of the Sanhakas Federation The transition to an interstellar civilization lead to the unision of the hundreds of Tarak states into a single global federation. It was more centralized than the Human Domain, but less so than the Ishamshuk Empire. The most capable member of the Federation were the Sanhakas, whose name is a derivation of an ancient term meaning 'those of the mound cities'. It was not military might which lead to the federation's creation, but rather the adept diplomacy of the Sanhakas. It was they who meticulously compromised and worked, over more than two decades, to bring bitter rivalries to an end and unite the Tarak species in a single united effort to explore and colonize space. Those who did not join the federation were conquered and assimilated, for the most part. While we may know the Tarak today as the 'Tarak Empire', they and their contemporaries called them the Sanhakas Federation. The Desan called them Hangwan Tonghi Wehaniyu or 'ruler(s) of distant land'. Interstellar territory was administered by the federation directly. Government officials for these colonies were appointed and dispatched by the federation itself, along with necessary colonists, security, and infrastructure. There was a federal army, funded and operated by the federation and Taras itself, along with colonial auxiliaries supplied by the Federation's subjects, colonies, and allies, fighting under federal command. Expansion Most empires throughout galactic history expand through conquest or through colonization. While the Tarak did a bit of both, they had a habit of encountering alien races in their travels and integrating them into the Federation as protectorates. It was this network of protection and alliances that gradually led to direct conflict and expansion. Thus, many species joined the Sanhakas Federation and thus the Tarak Empire, equal in most ways to the Tarak themselves. In order to facilitate communication, a lingua franca was developed. Wars with the Desan The Tarak historically would be one of the greatest rivals to the Desan, and ultimately would prove superior to them. The Tarak fought two major wars with the Desan, but in reality the two empires were constantly skirmishing along the frontier, raiding one another, privateering the other's trade lanes, supporting dissidents in the other's territory, and were almost never truly at peace. Tensions were high, but it was the Desan that launched the first major offensive, beginning with a punitive expedition sent to attack a prominent Tarak-controlled border world. First War The Desan despised the Tarak, viewing them as hedonistic and debauched. As the Tarak were the last true threat to the Desan, in order to preserve the integrity of the hegemony of the Triple Alliance, state and military propaganda exaggerated the Tarak threat and highlighted the behavior the Desan viewed as obscene, and, like every other time previously, the general public called for war and the mobilization process began, though the cries in support of war were quieter than they had been in earlier times. The frontier between the two had been fortified, but the Tarak side was much more so. The Tarak expected the, from their view, hyper-aggressive and conquest-bent Desan to attack at some point, and invested greatly in frontier defenses. Planets along this frontier were obligated to fund extensive local militias, with subsidies from Taras itself, and these local militias were in charge of building and staffing local fortifications, built to standards and qualifications outlined by officials from Taras, with resources and military equipment provided by government arsenals. The general plan if all-out war with the Desan was to come was simply to force the Desan to fight on their terms, then relieve the sieges, encircle isolate the attackers, destroying them in a counter-offensive. While basic, it worked. During the First Tarak-Desan War, the Desan punitive expedition was crushed in a series of decisive battles, after the Desan had made little gains. Interbellum This disastrous defeat lead to the hegemony of the Triple Alliance being questioned, and the Desan's empire collapsed into revolts, known as the Third Reassertion Wars, in which the Triple Alliance's warfleets slowly brought all Desan worlds once again under its sphere of influence as tributary states. During these wars, a species of fallow Desan slaves, known as the Puori, who had co-existed with the Desan on worlds near the Tarak frontier, were being cleansed in a genocide ordered by the local kingdom, who no longer had supervision from Mars. As things were getting underway, the Puori appealed to the Tarak for help. The Tarak agreed, and sent warships and troops to depose the government of the local wehukiwehan, and in doing so, freed the Puori. The Desan in the area were brutalized - Desan cities were looted by Tarak troops, with any resisters being killed, and many others were taken prisoner and put in labor camps under Puori supervisors. This series of events lead to the Puori being extremely loyal to the Tarak, and they pledged to provide any military aid the Tarak would need for a second war with the Desan. Leaving the former Desan worlds ravaged, the majority of Tarak troops moved back to their old positions, while Puori migrants settled on Tarak border worlds and joined the aforementioned local militias and helped staff local forts, immensely bolstering the manpower available at these fortifications. The biggest takeaway from the campaign to free the Puori, however, was that the Desan power structure could be exploited, and that by manipulating the downtrodden slaves throughout the Desan Empire, the nuisance could be dealt with. The Desan concluded their reassertion wars, once again successful in restoring the hegemony of the Triple Alliance. The Tarak campaign to free the Puori was seen by the Desan as an act of aggression - they had entered Desan territory, slaughtered their people and ransacked their cities, and turned supposedly loyal slaves against them (this, of course, being an outright lie, as the Desan had wanted to exterminate them first). As expected, the Desan prepared for another war with the Tarak, and had general support from the entire empire, but this time it would be no small expedition. Task forces took position along the entire frontier, and were to execute a synchronized attack and break through on every front. Every available warship from every corner of the empire had pulled together to prepare for this massive offensive, along with millions of ground troops from the Triple Alliance as well as auxilia. Second War The Second Desan-Tarak War ignited and was on a much larger scale than the first. The war was very chaotic, with so many units active and so many simultaneous engagements that the Desan required their advanced supercomputers just to keep track of the latest updates from all fronts. The Tarak battleplan of the first war had changed little by the time of the second, however, a large force was kept in reserve to respond to trouble spots, and they now had their new Puori allies, who defended Tarak-built fortresses with fanatical zeal, yielding no ground and giving the Desan no quarter. The Desan would prove successful in taking some of these forts and ultimately the planet, but at extreme and gruesome cost. Before long, the Desan were unable to push any further into Tarak territory, the rate of attrition being too great. The problem was amplified by Tarak logistics raiding, which focused not on destroying mass conveyors but capturing them and all goods aboard, and scrapping the starship for reprocessing into ammunition and replenishment. The Desan found themselves in the same trap as the first war - encircled and isolated, and despite initial success, their fate would be the same. This time however the Tarak counterattack did not stop at the Desan frontier but rather pushed in. Desan civilization was thrown into panic, and months passed before the Tarak force encountered any sort of resistance. Every Desan-ruled world in the path of the Tarak was extinguished, and slaves were freed, building new interstellar states in the ashes of Desan conquest. Late History: Dissolution of the Federation War of Reform The Kaghzemlya Ten Tragic Days Life and Society Fighting and Warfare The dense vegetation of the heartland of Tarak civilization was a major factor in how warfare developed. Settlements and Working Life Tarak cities were notably not very densely packed. Tarak are generally a people that enjoy having a lot of personal space. This was important for their lifestyle as well. The materialistic philosophy common to most (if not all) Tarak cultures favored cities which spread out over a large area rather than densely-packed tenements and streets. There were exceptions - the largest cities on Taras, by population, were those constructed in the vicinity of cenotes or lakes (most notably Lake Karowahas) which approached densities which would not be unheard of in typical human cities. These cities were often the centers of technological and social progress - as more densely populated areas tend to be - and most often were the capitals of major empires and kingdoms throughout Taras' history. The very loose, spread-out nature of most Tarak settlements, and the ever-advancing and shifting jungle landscape, meant that most of them were not easily seen from orbit, and were notoriously difficult to assault from the ground as well. Some would get lost to the jungle entirely, leaving ruins of entire civilizations that had long collapsed deep within. Culture Lifestyle While their Desan rivals detested the Tarak's supposedly debauched and hedonistic nature in propaganda, there is some element of truth to this perception. Desan had simpler, almost ascetic tastes, seeking meaning in most things they did, and found happiness in honing crafts. In contrast, the Tarak were a materialistic folk, who valued having the finest clothes, the best food, the most mates, the most wealth, in short they enjoyed a lavish and decadent lifestyle. A Desan commoner might be content with his clay-and-glass hovel, but a Tarak commoner would never settle for so little. A Tarak commoner may not live in a palace or wear the best clothes and the most valuable jewelry - but would do everything he could to keep up the outward appearance that he does. This was an accepted fact of Tarak life, universal to all cultures of Taras. Hunting Hunting was a big part of Tarak culture and lifestyle. On Taras, where vegetation was often thick and difficult to clear, agriculture took a long time to catch on, leading most Tarak cultures to rely on hunting, fishing, and gathering for the bulk of their food supply. Of these, hunting was the most prestigious, and became more than just a means of getting food. It was said that the earliest Tarak currency was blood-soaked copper arrowheads which had pierced game. The more animals a hunter had downed (or the more arrows it took to do it) meant one had more to barter with. For the rest of Tarak history, coins were not minted in circles, but in arrowhead shapes. (goddamnit pixel you werent supposed to make another race rely on monetary currency you lazy shit) Mummification A universal concept among all cultures on Taras was mummification. The Tarak mummified their dead and had done so for millenia before taking to space, continuing the practice up until their last days as a civilization. It was seen as the most dignified way to die, if not the only one that was so, and far better than cremation or simple burial.